Thanksgiving Snow

I have to go all the way back to Thanksgiving. We just enjoyed a nice, quiet break at home. Except that our heater went out. It got a little cold. We got it working again on Thanksgiving day, but when we woke up the next day to a very cold house we decided we better call someone. We have a brand new furnace, so I was a little frustrated with that, but it turned out it was a problem with the wires in the thermostat.

The highlight of our vacation was that we had a little snow! The week was a little exciting with news of a huge "blizzard" coming in. Schools all over the state were closing early and activities were canceled. Brandon got sent home from work early on Monday. We sat around waiting for the blizzard, but we either missed it or aren't used to Utah's blizzards. The following Sunday we did get dumped on, though, and that made my little (big) girl happy. Well, here are some photos from our Thanksgiving day of sledding.

With that coat she almost blends into the snow.

Trust me, Soph, this is going to be fun!

This little turkey smacked me with a snowball while I was trying to take her picture. I thought holding a camera made me off limits.

I don't have a hat, so I grabbed Chloe's on the way out the door. Nobody bothered to tell me what a doofus I looked like.

Merry Christmas, From the Nicholls

I haven't been around much. Maybe you've noticed. Maybe not. I'm never quite sure how much I write is for myself or for some mystical audience. Well, I really hope to change that. Not for your sake, but for mine. And my children.

In an effort to be more eco-friendly (along with all the other changes I'm making), I've opted for this electronic version of a Christmas card. I figure anyone looking at this version probably reads my blog regularly; therefore, we can just skip the whole "what our family did this past year" section. If you missed it, there are archives. But maybe you'd like to know what we've been doing this past month. You'll have to stay tuned for that. Brandon says it's better when I break it up into smaller posts, rather than one L O N G, tiring one. So I'll get to work on that. I promise. I'm on Christmas vacation, so it could happen. But then again, my computer has been acting up and some days it prefers not to operate. If I run into those, then I may have to delay my promise.

Merry Christmas to all!

Changing Seasons

We have been up to many adventures. I'm going to start with a visit from Jason and his children. His wife went on a little trip, and they must have got bored and ended up at my house. We walked in (after being gone for the morning) to find a naked baby and poo all over the place. Since there was just a dad in charge, of course there were no extra clothes, so she got to wear her cozy jacket the rest of the day. I was under the impression Jason was coming over to babysit for ME, but somehow we all ended up going on a hike together. It was a lovely day for a hike, until it started raining on us. We headed back once the rain came, but we still got fairly wet.


Once we got home and had some chili for dinner the kids started begging for a sleep over. The last time Eli was here they did the same thing, but this time there was a care-free dad in charge. He was just like, "Ok!" So, Eli spent the night. He got to wear Sophie's clothes (since he hadn't brought anything to this spontaneous slumber party). He was pretty excited about that.


The next week we finally had some leaves fall off a tree. Chloe has sat and envied the neighbors with all the leaves in their yard. Yes, there have even been tears shed over it. Well, our yard finally got some and Brandon was ordered NOT to mow them. For FHE our activity was raking up what minute amount we had and burying Chloe in them. She was one happy little girl.



We squeezed in some fall traditions of carving pumpkins and making a gingerbread house. We even roasted the pumpkin seeds this year. They turned out much better than the last time I tried -- and after the girls got over their fear of them, they agreed they were pretty tasty!



I didn't have a chance to take pictures of the girls in their costumes on Halloween, but luckily they tried them on at least once a week in the months preceding so I have one to post. Chloe picked out her costume in May. She knew exactly what she wanted, and even had a coupon to the store she wanted. We weren't going to go trick-or-treating this year, but then Sophie's orthodontist mentioned how they buy Halloween candy from the kids (which got the girls all excited), and I decided that wouldn't be such a bad idea. Still let them participate in the act, get some cash out of it, and not have to ingest all that junk food. It was a win-win situation.


As promised, I took Chloe out for another photo shoot. She needed some pictures with leaves! I don't think my photography skills quite match up with her artistic vision, but I know she had a good time just being out in nature and enjoying the colors. There was one point where we were just hiking along and we came to this clearing of tons of leaves on the ground. I wish I could have captured the gasp Chloe let out. It was a pretty site. The girls just sat and threw leaves up in the air, trying to catch as many as they could in their hair.




Fall quickly turned to winter. We got a little bit of snow yesterday, but we actually got some to accumulate today. Sophie was worried that it would melt by the time they got out to play in it, so I let them have an early recess this morning. And I'm so glad I did, the snow was all gone by lunch time. But we had two nice looking snowmen to show for it.

Black Island Farms

Our field trip for October was going to Black Island Farms. We went there three years ago, but haven't been back for a while. Not much had changed. It was still fun. I think it made the girls even more excited to get our farm. I kept showing them all the great things we can do. I don't know if we want to turn ours into an "agri-tourism" business like Black Island has, but it's an option! Of course, we enjoyed a tractor ride out to the field to choose a pumpkin; then there was feeding the donkeys, lamas, and goats; sliding down the haystack slides a bazillion times; riding the cow train, which had a short technical difficulty, but they got it running again; playing in the corn box; swinging, etc. For once, the girls were actually excited to hang out with our group. They're usually begging to go off by ourselves, but this time they were anxious to keep up with our teacher and did NOT want to be left alone. Sorry for all my collages lately, but I just have too many pictures I want to include and I find this the least overbearing way of displaying them.



And while I have your attention, I'm going to make another plug. If you count going to the adult session of stake conference (which I don't, but the girls do), then Brandon and I have had two dates in the last week. Whoa! Last night we got to go to a screening of "Waiting for Superman." It's a documentary about the mess our educational system is in. I'm finding these documentaries quite enjoyable, and have realized that I don't like being ignorant. I used to. It was quite comfortable, but lately I feel that there is too much for me to do to sit around and live my life just like everyone else.

Here's one more quick story before I sign off: The girls were sitting in the living room today doing their work while I was in the basement for a minute, when I heard screams and running. I knew that could only mean one thing -- a spider. They came running to tell me how huge this spider was. Then Sophie got up the courage for just a second to run back upstairs and when she came back she said, "I got some stuff to survive with -- Math, to make ourselves intelligent." Moral of the story: when creating your emergency preparedness plan don't forget the intelligence. I guess a math book won't hurt.

Birthday, Ghosts & Corn

First of all, I need to thank everyone who made my birthday a special day. It was pretty quiet, being a Sunday and all but we had home teachers and visiting teachers come. The home teachers were just making their monthly rounds, the visiting teachers actually knew it was my birthday and stopped by to see me. They had actually brought me something a month ago, thinking my birthday was Sep. 10th but that's ok. Two presents never hurt! Jason and Eli also surprised us with a visit. He seems to always know when we're about to serve cheesecake. This was not the first time he showed up unannounced just as it was about to come out of the fridge. So, thanks to all for the phone calls, cards, and gifts! Now I need to go find some time to do some reading.


I also had my book club this week, but let me back up a couple days. Every year about this time a little "ghost" comes creeping through the neighborhood delivering goodies to our porch. We are then asked to do the same to 3 other homes. So, I decided to whip up a batch of cookies that we could use to deliver to 3 houses and I could also take some to my book club. Then I put the girls in charge of getting them delivered while I was gone. After I got home Brandon showed me the pictures on the camera he had taken of them. Apparently they thought they needed to camouflage themselves to deliver the goodies. I don't know why Sophie looks like she's about to attack, though.


Our latest conquest in becoming self-sufficient was to make cornmeal. The corn we grew in our garden this year didn't turn out too great. So, we just let it get old, dried the kernels, and then milled them. We got to enjoy some cornbread for dinner the other night. Have you heard of "farm to table" dinners that are catching on these days? Well, this is our "garden to table" dinner.

Lastly, we received some good news today. Sophie's expander is working! So she doesn't have to turn it anymore -- except one turn per week to keep it from collapsing. She was pretty excited when she got the news. We don't have to go back for a whole month!

Conference Weekend

A few days ago Chloe emailed me asking if I would do a photo shoot of her and Sophie with their friends. I thought that was such a cute idea, and rather sad I didn't come up with it myself. So, after getting the go-ahead from their friend's mother we scheduled to go do it during the Priesthood session of conference. Chloe picked this fun park, appropriately named Nicholls Park, in Fruit Heights. It's always so crowded there, but we worked around it. I decided to haul my video camera along as well and see if I could make a movie out of it. You'll get to see the video I put together, but I just have to say that it's much easier having someone else run the video camera while I take pictures. Too bad my videographer was in the pictures.

Then right after we got back from the photo shoot the girls had a campout with Brandon in the backyard. They had the tent all set up and ready to go. They started a fire and I joined them for a bit, while they roasted marshmallows. Marshmallows are on my list of non-food items, but somehow Brandon got talked into buying some for them. This morning we ate breakfast outside, which Brandon cooked on his camping stove, and Chloe asked me to take some photos for her to scrapbook. I'm borrowing them for my "scrapbook."




We spent the day watching the rest of conference, and now it is time to get out of the house! I'm going for a walk....

Quick Update

We've been doing a lot lately. Not too much to go crazy, but enough so I haven't had a chance to update the blog for a while. Here's a quick run down of our recent happenings:

Orthodontist
We've had a few appointments at an orthodontist. Sophie has to have her mouth widened. She's been in a bit of pain. Makes me sad for her. But it was a good excuse to go for a Smoochies run -- she just couldn't eat anything for dinner, so I treated her to a smoothie.

Solar Tour
We spent our Saturday at this amazing tour of homes built with all kinds of energy efficient models. We just picked the passive solar homes because there were way too many to see in one afternoon. I don't know about Brandon, but it was really good for me to see what we can do. This is another one of those dreams-in-progress for us.

Bowling
Chloe wanted to go bowling for FHE. Brandon decided his back was well enough he might be able to handle it. He did fine. My bowling skills did not. Apparently it's been too long. Yes, the girls got to use bumpers but it was still sad that I came in dead last. It was still pretty fun.

Invictus
My brother (Jason) handed me this movie and told us to watch it. I was obedient. It was a pretty good story. But I felt inspired to have the girls and I memorize the poem. Chloe had it done in two days. She was kind enough to let me record her (while we were babysitting Eli and Elsie -- another of our great adventures).

Hike
Another field trip. We have two a month, which is quite a bit when you're used to two a year. This time we went on a hike. I was excited to see some new places around here. It was a pretty hot day, though. I need to go exploring some more when it cools off just a bit. This is the best shot I got (I only took two pictures the whole hike).

Logan
Yesterday we got to go to a surprise birthday party for Ross. When we got there it was dark and nobody else was there. We were a little worried. But it turned out ok. More people showed up. We wished Ross a happy birthday and headed home. We also got took a detour on the way up so we could drive by Clarkston. Just wanted to check that part of the country out, and we saw Martin Harris's tombstone but that picture is on my phone at the moment.

Photo Shoot
Chloe begged for a photo shoot. She really wants one with all the fall colors, but we're just not quite there yet. We'll have to do another one soon.

Civil War Field Trip

On Friday we got to go on a field trip. We went to Heber for a Civil War day. They had several different stations that taught about different aspects of the war. We learned some artillery marches, what the soldiers wore, what the civilians wore, some music, the medicines used to treat soldiers, and some other stuff. They shot a cannon off, which the kids all seemed to enjoy. It was a beautiful drive over. The leaves are changing colors, which Chloe especially liked. She had taken this set of books I bought years ago and was sharing everything she read as we drove. She's somewhat of a science buff -- which is not my area of expertise. But my favorite part of the day was after she had shared something she learned she then said, "But I need to get back to reading. There's so much to learn!" Thank you, Chloe, for that glimpse.

We Are Going to Zion

Actually we went to Zion's -- for Labor Day weekend. The real occasion was for Shane's 40th birthday. We tried to have a surprise party for him, and it was just nice enough that his birthday fell on a holiday weekend. Now I say tried because I don't think it was much of a surprise by the time he got there.

We had left a day early so we could do some gallivanting. We stopped in Manti to take a break and hung out at the temple, and then got a hotel in Richfield for the night, where we got no sleep thanks to another guest who left their car lights on all night and never bothered to stop their alarm from going off. Needless to say, I got a very good nights sleep the next night as I was pretty exhausted. Just before getting to Zion's we stopped in Orderville to have lunch at a park. To make a long story short, we are now really good friends with the Valley High School class of 1950. We got to set up for their reunion, meet some classmates, hear all about them and the town. In addition to that, this was the town Deputy Brian Harris was from, who had just been shot by an escaped convict from Arizona the week before, so we got to hear about all that had been done for him and the funeral.

We got to Zion's on Saturday afternoon and got to hang out with Jason & Shalee while we waited for the rest of the crew. My mom had rented a "mountain home" for all of us to stay in. Luckily, we were able to get in a little early so we had a place to hang out while we waited. Yeah, they got lost/went the wrong way -- ran into Shane on the way, drug him the wrong way with them -- all through the one-lane construction which moved very slow. They finally showed up and Rick & Amy treated us to dinner. Rick is Shane's friend from way back when who came along for the party. After dinner we took the girls to swim in the dark. I got terrible pictures of that, but like I said, it was dark.

Sunday Jason & Shalee treated us to breakfast, and then we drove back to Orderville to go to church. You can imagine how excited we were when we ran into our old friends from the class of 1950. After church we finally got to go explore Zion's. Chloe didn't want to go hiking (she's a swimmer), so Amy was kind enough to let Chloe stay and swim with them. Chloe had a lot of fun with Britney, and Rick wasn't up to hiking after his run-in with a chain saw. Sophie tagged along with Brandon and I, and she was a great hiker! We did the Emerald Pools loop. It was pretty hot at first, but after we got back into the canyon it was really nice and a great little hike. After dinner that night we had the birthday celebration. Lark planned a game for us, and I was in charge of creating a slideshow.

Monday Brandon and I got to make breakfast. We tried to be on top of things knowing we had to check out that morning, but things got sped along when we realized the sewer system was backed up. Not a pretty sight, but it was a good motivator to get everyone packed up and out of there! Not to mention, it was good for me to see that my house is not the only one that has issues -- even brand new, expensive homes fall apart. So, after loading up we went over and watch all those interested do the zip line. I thought Chloe might do it for a minute, but then she decided not. We made it home Monday night, and motivated the kids to get everything put away with the promise of going out for a FHE treat. That was a good end to our vacation.

Date Night

I got to go on a date with my husband on Friday night. We just don't do that as often as we should. We're kind of boring. But I got excited about this particular date. FRESH, the movie, came to Salt Lake! I've been on their mailing list for a long time now, but up until now the only way to see the movie was to schedule a screening with at least 100 people. Let's be honest, I have nowhere near that many friends. So I was pretty excited when Brandon came home and told me he found out it was going to be playing at the theater. I immediately scheduled a date for the two of us, and we made it happen. The cool part was that the director came and did a Q&A session after the show. There were only about 10 people in the theater, so it was very intimate. I guess they didn't require 100 people for this showing.



Also newsworthy for the day, I took Chloe to the eye doctor. She showed signs of struggling with her eyesight, and after putting it off for a bit I finally made an appointment. You may recall how excited she is to wear glasses -- well, turned out there was nothing wrong. Dr. even said she was basically 20/20. I don't know what all that squinting was about, and holding books a centimeter from her nose, but she doesn't need glasses! Good news for our pocket book. Do people even have pocket books anymore? I thought Chloe was going to be pretty disappointed, but she told me she wasn't. The doctor told her we could get her some glasses with a very low prescription just to use for reading, but she opted against that. She still has her "fashion" glasses that she can wear as she pleases anyway.

This Little Girl Got Baptized

Last Saturday was the big day for Soph. For the longest time she didn't want to get baptized, which was ok by me. I really wanted this to be her choice, and not something she felt she HAD to do. She would say she wanted to do it when she was either 10 or 20 (the age Brandon was when he got baptized). Then about January something just kicked it. Maybe it was another kid in her primary class who got baptized -- I don't know, but she had clearly changed her mind. The planning began. She got herself a binder, drew a picture of her dad baptizing her to put in the cover, started planning a menu for the luncheon afterward, and started making phone calls asking people to do things for the program. And of course there were the pictures she bugged me about forever. At least we didn't have to worry about a dress -- Grandma had taken care of that a long time ago.

Unfortunately, Ross was going to be on his honeymoon, Dallas had to get back to Indiana, and Jason had a family reunion on his wife's side so she didn't have a lot of Priesthood holders to come. She was very stressed about that. She got her best friends dad, Quentin, to be one of her witnesses, but she really wanted a lot more people in the circle to confirm her. I think it was just fine, and everything went well, but she was worried.

Grandma Lark didn't make it in the picture, but she was there. We overheard her the week before saying she probably wouldn't make it (she feels like she's a burden and more work to everyone), but Sophie went and told her that she'd really like her there. It must have worked because she showed up.

It was a special day for Sophie, and I'm glad she had so much fun planning it and getting excited about it. I hope it was everything she hoped for. She's a special little girl.

Wedding Bells

Did I mention Little Ross got married? I guess he's not so little anymore, but it's hard to believe he's married. After having the open house a week before the wedding we should have been ready. Brandon and I drove up to Logan on Saturday and found our kids we hadn't seen in a week (we had left them at grandma's the week before). They seemed to be intact. So then we deserted them again while we went to the wedding ceremony. It was a nice day to hang out -- in the shade. After all the customary pictures we went to Layton for the wedding luncheon. We only had a couple hours after that to "relax" before we had to show up at the in-laws residence for -- more pictures? But just as we got there a rain storm moved in. Their house quickly became quite an exciting place as everyone was bringing all the decorations in from outside. At the last minute they decided to hold the reception inside (that got thrown together awfully nice in such a short time!). I think it took 4 tries of moving everything back outside before the rain finally stopped for good (that night). We never did get the pictures, but I thought we had plenty from the temple (and I'm the camera freak) so we'll be ok.

Sunday we had everyone (minus the newlyweds, who had just left for their honeymoon) over for a picnic dinner at the park. This time it wasn't so nice in the shade. It was just too hot to really enjoy it, so after eating and doing a pinata we ran back to the A/C.

Yesterday we still had my parents and Dallas's family around. I had to do some family pictures for them, then we went out to lunch, and then went to the Museum of Natural History before they all had to head out. It was a crazy weekend, but we're glad everyone could get together and happy for Ross & Melanie.

I Was Deaf, But Now I Hear

I lost my hearing last week. While on vacation my ear started acting funny, but after getting home it just kept getting worse. Friday I finally called a doctor (anyone who knows me knows what a leap of faith that was)! Of course, they couldn't get me in until Monday (which in itself is a miracle). I couldn't get the doctor I wanted, but at this point I was willing to make a sacrifice. So, Saturday we had to take off and go to Star Valley for little Ross & Melanie's open house. Being in a car with a broken ear was painful, but the noise at that house was even worse. After the open house Brandon and I took my grandma back to her house and stayed with her. Sunday morning was so nice. We just hung out in her quiet home, all alone. I almost thought I might be healed -- but then we went to church. The minute I walked into their Relief Society room I knew it wasn't going to be good. But this is an older ward, with lots of old people so they use microphones for all their classes. I thought that might help me hear, but NO -- it just made it worse. My ear did not like that. The one in the chapel wasn't so bad, so maybe it just needed more space. Anyhow, we made it home and I made it to the doctor. I really can't remember ever being excited to go to a doctor before. The good news is he fixed me! It was just ear wax. He looked at my "good" ear first, but was quite surprised it wasn't the one bothering me. So, now both ears are nice and clean -- and I can hear! He told me I'd be hearing things I haven't heard before. I'm not sure I've heard anything new, but things sure do sound different.

Here are a few photos for you from Saturday's festivities:

Palmyra, Kirtland and an Eight Year Old

We have had one fun filled week. It all started last Saturday when we left for Cheyenne. We stayed with Brandon's sister, Nicole, and her family. The girls had fun playing with their cousins and we were well fed (cooking is a little bit more than a hobby for Doo Sung). On Sunday we went over to Grandma and Grandpa's for a birthday party! That's right, Sophie turned the magical 8. She opened some gifts and then ate cake and FRUIT! But then we had to head off to Denver for we had a very early flight the next morning. We were up Monday morning at 3:45 AM. We flew to Rochester and then drove to our hotel near Palmyra. We stayed there for three days -- seeing all the sights and watching the Hill Cumorah Pageant. Of course, every day we spent some time at the pool.

On Thursday we left Palmyra and drove to Niagara Falls. When I first saw the "Maid of the Mist" boat tours I was so excited, but Sophie was extremely scared and since this was her trip I wasn't going to make her do something she didn't want. But then the week before we left I was talking to some people at church and they told me we HAD to do it. They told me I could blame them if Sophie was upset. So, then I was all excited again and thought I couldn't pass it up. After telling Sophie I really wanted to do it she relented -- as long as I promised to hold her the entire time. She was still pretty scared up until the minute we started to get wet. And suddenly it became fun and amazing. She took her rain coat off and laughed through it all! Well, there's another lesson learned.

After Niagara we drove to Kirtland, Ohio. We just hung out at the pool that night and then went and saw all the sites the next morning. We did all the "Historic Kirtland" stuff, then went and had lunch and finished up with the Isaac Morley Farm and the Kirtland temple tour in the afternoon. Saturday morning we drove an hour out to Hiram to the Johnson farm. We tried to find something else to do to kill a little time afterwards, but the one place we went was closed so we just went and grabbed lunch before heading to the airport. We flew in to Denver at 9:30 (but we were still on Eastern time), then drove to Ft. Collins where we had a hotel reservation, but we had to go do some shopping first to stock up for our drive home. It was a late night, but we were used to a crazy schedule. We drove home Sunday and had a few hours to relax a bit -- while we waited for the air conditioner to kick in and cool our house back down.

Then this morning we were up bright and early again, as I had to send my girls off to their first Activity Girl's day camp. They're growing up, and going off to places without me.

Clothes Cost Money

How do you teach kids about money? I think this is a problem most parents wrestle with. I have a lot of ideas, but not much that I think my kids are ready for yet. But I just solved one problem at our house. Clothes! I'm raising girls, so I know I have a tough job here. For some reason our issues with clothes almost always seem to arise on Sunday mornings. I am tired of buying my children clothes, only to have them tell me a week later that they don't fit or they don't like it anymore. So, I've handed their clothes shopping over to them. I took our clothing budget and divided it into 4 (Brandon, Candi, Chloe, and Sophie). Now we'll each get equal amounts every month instead of it going into one big pot. They know how much money they have. The responsibility is off my shoulders so I don't have to worry about it anymore. They can buy whatever they want (as long as it meets our modesty standards). And I already see them making smarter choices. Someday I hope to do this on a large scale, but right now I know if they did the grocery shopping we'd all be sick, and what happens when they don't pay the utility bills because they'd rather have a toy? Yeah, we're not ready for that yet.

Good TV?

As much as we try to avoid TV at our house, I do have something to say about good entertainment. My husband likes to hang out on his laptop and occasionally one or both of the girls will come in and hang out with him, and they end up watching crazy movies online. I don't mean bad crazy -- just things I wouldn't normally go looking for (like things about animals). They're usually very educational, and I'm grateful for those opportunities. One time they got hooked on Jamie Oliver's "Food Revolution." I don't know if it's still out there, but that's good TV. I don't really agree with all of Jamie's ideas, but I know he got people thinking and moving in the right direction. Last week I found a show that drew the girls in. I had actually seen it advertised a long time ago, but since we have so little time for TV we never got to sit down and watch it. The show is called "Who Do You Think You Are?" I love that the girls will come and sit with me and watch it together. We get to talk about all the historical events they deal with, not to mention the main point of working on your family history. So, this is my plug for a show. It's online until September 18th. There are 7 different episodes. Don't ignore more important responsibilities to go watch it, but if you have some down time it's definitely worth it.

Dressed in White

Ok, I've made you wait long enough. This is just a little movie I put together of my photo shoot with Soph. I've had this idea for a long time, but finally made it happen. I tried to do it with Chloe's baptism pictures, but the battery in my video camera died about two minutes after starting, so we didn't get far. This time I was charged and ready. Sophie was a little impatient with me after her shoot. She wanted her pictures, and she wanted them now! I wanted to make a movie and do some cute things. She wanted a DVD just like I give my clients, so I made her one. Today she went and hooked up her mini DVD player, and watched it several times. I love it. It makes me happy that she loves it (especially after all of her complaining). And the picture looks much better on her DVD player than on Blogger. Thankfully.

And since I couldn't include ALL the pictures in the movie, I guess I'll let you see them too. We're getting excited for the big day, but still no time set. They should let us know in a week or two.

Worth Repeating

We had a full day today. After all the morning routine, Sophie was getting stir-crazy sitting around waiting for 4:00 to get here, so we went for a walk. Ended up playing in the creek. I so wish I'd had a camera. The girls came home soaking wet. When 4:00 finally got here they ran across the street to the neighbors for a primary activity. As soon as that was over we had to hop in the car -- we had an appointment to get Sophie's hair done. Again, I wish I'd taken my camera to get a shot of the process. That took way longer than I expected. I was getting a little nervous, and Sophie had left her shoes at home so we had to run home quick before heading to Salt Lake. She REALLY wanted the Salt Lake temple. She has been planning her baptism pictures for months! I finally agreed to doing them on Friday (she wanted them way earlier), but then we saw the forecast and I really didn't want to be outside taking pictures in 92 degree weather. Today was the last "nice" day for a while, so we snuck it in. It was perfect, and I'm glad she didn't let me talk her in to changing the location. It all worked out. She was beautiful. And I actually took pictures -- but you'll have to wait. On the way home Sophie asked, "Can we do this everyday?" I think she approved.

Sum, Sum, Summertime

School ended and I disappeared. The girls' last day was June 4th. Two days before Chloe had Colonial Days for the 3rd graders. She got her dad to take the day off and go help out with it -- the whole day. He's a great guy.

Once school was no longer tying us to their schedule, I got to come up with my own. We started our family work camp, although I'll admit it's not quite as rigorous as I'd like. But hey, our house simply isn't big enough to spend 4 hours cleaning every day. We do 2 rooms each day, takes us about an hour total (or less when they're really motivated), and my house is looking super good. But more importantly, my kids are learning valuable skills and they have something to occupy their time for a bit.

Aside from cleaning we do math every day. Chloe got so excited at school when they finished level 3 and got to move on to level 4. They got about 30 lessons into it before school got out. She wanted to try to finish level 4, so I bought the curriculum and we've been working on it. I like to harness that excitement, and take advantage of it when it comes along because it certainly isn't always there. Sophie plays her own math games and does worksheets while Chloe is doing hers.

The only other thing we've been doing is swimming lessons. Just Chloe; Sophie wasn't interested. Chloe loves the water and she's been loving her lessons! She finished level 4 and will start level 5 on Monday. It's a lot of fun to watch her swim. She does a great job. Brandon has told her after she passes all the levels (there's 6 of them) he will hire her to teach him how to swim! I think she's excited about that.

I Love Memorial Day

Growing up my family always celebrated Memorial Day, and I have fond memories of it. We'd go to the Paris and Bloomington cemeteries and put flowers on all our ancestors graves and then have a big picnic at my grandma's. But after leaving home Memorial Day just wasn't the same. I didn't know if it was not having family around to celebrate with, marrying someone who didn't have Memorial Day traditions, or what exactly. Then I moved to Utah and realized that everyone here celebrates like I'm used to. I guess it's a Mormon thing. We honor our ancestors, while the rest of the country seems to treat it as a second Veteran's Day. I never got that.

This year Brandon was trying hard to make the holiday special for me and he offered to take us down to the Bingham cemetery where he has some relatives buried. I was excited at first, but then I decided it probably wasn't worth it. It wouldn't be the same without Grams telling us stories about everyone buried there, and I didn't have enough time to prepare something that we could teach our kids. That's my goal for next year. Instead, we decided to just do some fun things.

We started out by having breakfast out on the patio. Brandon got out his little stove and cooked pancakes for us. You may notice Sophie's plate with a waffle. She made her own, but the rest of us did have pancakes (I'm not confused). And if you really study this picture you'll also see how our house is rotting away. Oh how fun these projects are! It's never as simple as we hope, and I think we'd be much happier just living in our rotting house if we could be ignorant to the fact and just ignore it.


Then for lunch we threw together a picnic and took it to one of my favorite parks. As we were making lunch, Chloe burst into singing "God Bless the USA." I joined her, and then Brandon says, "I wish Lark was here." I'm not sure if he was just really missing her, or if he was hoping to see her sing along with us. So, off to the park we went and on our way we passed the Farmington Cemetery. What a beautiful sight that was! That's the Memorial Day I remember. Love, love, loved it!



We ate, played at the park, hiked around, and just had a great time together. The weather couldn't have been more perfect. Beautiful day. We worked on the deck a tiny bit and then had FHE, which required going to another park in town and playing some crazy "tennis ball" game Chloe invented. It was a fun day with a fun little family.

Spring Wonderland

I know this isn't a big deal to most people I know -- mainly anyone who's ever lived in Wyoming, but Utah is a little different. Last year we enjoyed a nice, long, wet spring. It delayed the cotton, kept the weather cooler, and made the whole summer all around more bearable. I thought it was a fluke, but we seem to be getting a repeat this year. Last week, on MAY 24th, we got snow! Enough that it even accumulated (for a little while). This was the view out my back window:


And then Chloe ran out to cover up the holes we had just dug for the deck footers. We didn't exactly want to have to re-dig these 3 feet holes, or wait for the water to drain out of them. She's so on the ball.


She looked so cute out there in her brand new coat. Yes, I bought her a coat in May -- because it was on clearance and she's worn the same coat for two years now that she was definitely going to need a new one. And look at all the use she's getting out of it!

Five Whole Days

About two weeks ago we got to have Eli for 5 whole days. His parents got to go on vacation, and Elsie. Eli got to come to our house, the lucky duck. Ok, maybe he won't think so years down the road when he reads this (I'm sure he will), but he had a great time at our house.

First of all, his father is a liar. I've head all these horror stories about putting Eli to bed. He could not have been a better sleeper. For all 5 days he went to bed and had nap time right on schedule. He did wake up one time in the middle of the night, but went right back to sleep after I went and checked on him. And he did throw one major temper tantrum after I had to wake him up from a nap to go pick up Sophie from school, but I learned my lesson after that. His nap times were so thrilling that even my children were excited to participate.


That is the first time they have had a nap in about 3 years. Chloe and Sophie were such good helpers with Eli. We got him on Saturday, so they were around to help the whole weekend. Knowing how hard it would be without my super helpers, I made them a deal. I let Chloe stay home from school on Monday to help out, and then Sophie got to stay home on Tuesday, so I only had him alone on Wednesday. This has been Chloe's dream for a very long time. She wants to babysit so bad. And it was nice to give her a day all to herself, where she wasn't fighting with Sophie over him. They assure me that if I would just have another baby they would take care of it -- changing diapers and all. And now I'm sure they would. Not that Eli is still in diapers, but they took care of all the dirty deeds.

I think whenever Eli is dropped off at my house his parents expect to see a photo shoot afterward. I guess I'm getting pretty lazy, because it just didn't happen this time. I only got the sleeping picture (because I was so excited to see my kids napping I HAD to get a picture of that!), but Chloe took a couple.